Alba Gu Brath
by MSK42
Summary: To become independent in the early 1800s is to enter a world of chaos. Scotland, a land centuries old but joined to England for over a century, has done so, and at once faces the challenges of independence and imperialism in the 1800s. With its home split between Highlands and Lowlands and lands abroad being snapped up by empires, Scotland will attempt to stand the test of time.
1. Prologue

Scotland had been on the island of Great Britain longer than England had, at least according to the Scots. And the rivalry between England and Scotland was a blood feud, even after the union of the crowns and the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain. The union would last only a little longer than a century. During the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon managed to clandestinely feeding arms and weapons to Scottish nationalists, who lacked a true Jacobite heir to the throne.

Despite this, in 1807, rebellions broke out across the Highlands, from Argyll to Aberdeen. As they made gains, the United Kingdom's attention was split away from the continent. By 1809, the Scottish Nationalists had begun moving down into the Lowlands, where they had begun to get more support over time. This lead to new resources being available for their uprising, and furthered the chaos.

In 1811, the Nationalists had begun to seize more land and territory in a sort of pseudo-guerilla war against the British and the "Loyalists". The war with Napoleon was already distracting them massively, and then a _third_ problem came up when the United States declared war on the United Kingdom over a plethora of issues. Britain was now stretched three different ways, and it especially came to a head with the Battle of the Dover Strait, a British loss that eliminated any latent pride from the Battle of Trafalgar, damaging the British navy to a point that the UK was desperate for peace lest they risk an invasion of England proper.

As such, the United Kingdom was taken to the negotiating table. The Treaty of London (1814) had several very negative repercussions for England. Among them was the recognition of the French Empire's hegemony over the continent (which was somewhat shortsighted, as a disastrous invasion of Russia just two years later would begin the downfall of Napoleon's empire), a renegotiation of the United States - United Kingdom border, but perhaps most important of all, lead to the severing of the 1707 Acts of Union.

The unrest had extended abroad as well. The United States and France had both taken interest in propping up an independent Scotland, and as such, they saw a chance to cut Britain down further abroad as well. The colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island had experienced a large amount of unrest as well from their massive Scottish diaspora. Eager to weaken the United Kingdom's influence just north of them, the United States managed to get London to transfer those colonies to Scottish control, which the newly independent Kingdom of Scotland. Scotland soon organized this as the Dominion of Nova Scotia, with its capital in Halifax. At the same time, London was also pressured into giving over a Caribbean island to Scotland, which they did with the British Virgin Islands, small islands of little consequence.

With the treaties arranged, Scotland became formally independent in 1815, and promptly remained neutral in the last days of the Napoleonic Wars. In this time, Scotland was busy trying to pull itself together, and one of the biggest issues was who the new monarch of the Kingdom would be. With the Stuart line dead since the 1700s, the Scots turned to the continent. After studying the Jacobite line of succession, it was determined that Maria Beatrice of Savoy had the strongest claim to a restored Scottish throne, but a problem lay in that she was Catholic. Out of pragmatism, Scotland modified an existing code forbidding Catholics from taking the throne even after converting to allow Catholics that had converted to the Church of Scotland to take the throne. Maria consented to become the new monarch, converted to the Church of Scotland, and was coronated as Queen Mary III of Scotland after her marriage to Francis IV of Modena was annulled. As Modena already had an heir in the form of the future Francis V, Mary III's heir in Scotland was selected to be her eldest child and daughter Maria Theresa of Austria-Este.

With the dawning of 1836, the Kingdom of Scotland had been revived, had formed a parliament, and already had several colonies of her own. Her destiny lay before her, and all of Scotland was ready to take it.


	2. 1836 - 1846

As the sun dawned over Scotland in the year 1836 Anno Domini, several things had made themselves readily apparent. One, Scotland was sharply divided between the Highlands and the Lowlands. Two, Scotland was more liberal than the United Kingdom of England and Ireland, if only by a little. Three, the "Scottish Empire" as some more jingoistic Scots called it was fairly small, and would easily be swept away by the tide of history if they didn't try to do something about it.

Queen Mary III was a constitutional monarch, her power limited by the trust that the citizens of Scotland had with a democratic government. And yet, she still had some influence in the government, and one thing that she saw as necessary was the expansion of the "Empire". Some deliberation was undertaken, and it was decided that colonies in Africa would be the best place to start. However, even after being independent for 18 years, Scotland's navy wasn't all that strong, and the United Kingdom was still watching them warily. As such, their colonial prospects were still limited.

Seeking a way around this, Scotland decided that the best way of going about it would be to purchase an existing colony. The Scots initially approached the British about purchasing land, but they were still incredibly wary of the new Kingdom. As such, Scotland turned to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, who agreed to sell Fort Orange in the region known as Ghana to Scotland, giving them the ability to begin a settlement of Africa.

Meanwhile, Scotland did have two major factors that allowed it to grow its economy: it had large deposits of coal, and it had a fair amount of farmland. The capital of Edinburgh had a decent amount of industrial development, but the true industrial heart of Scotland was Glasgow, which also became the center of shipbuilding in Scotland for its position on the River Clyde. The combination of agricultural production and industrial growth was resulting in the rapid growth of the economy of the Lowlands.

However, the Highlands were lagging considerably. Owing to their rocky terrain and mountainous geography, the Highlands were not suitable for any considerable economic growth of the kind the Lowlands were experiencing. This economic disparity only continued to grow throughout the coming decades, and highlighted an important split in Scotland: the Highlands, which were more Gaelic in their culture than the Lowlands, often felt like they were being left behind by the Lowlands. What's more, with industry growing in the Lowlands, more people were migrating from the Highlands and cities like Inverness to cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh.

To combat this, the Scottish Parliament authorized a new "emergency series of subsidies" to grow industry in the Highlands. The subsidies were mildly successful, with Inverness growing into a new center of industry, but still one that lagged far behind Lowland cities. However, it did have one resource it could utilize greatly: wool. The economy of the Highlands was based largely in sheep herding, although mining was growing. Inverness' factories were thus inevitably textile factories that used the wool to produce cloth in great amounts, turning Inverness into a center of textile production on the British Isles.

In 1840, Queen Mary III died of a heart condition, and was succeeded by her daughter as Mary IV. At this time, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom had been reigning since 1837, and in a grand gesture of friendship attended the coronation of Mary IV, later meeting with the Scottish queen personally. Both women were quite young, with Mary IV being 23 and Victoria being 21. Both women were also constitutional monarchs, but one reigned over the largest colonial Empire in the world and the other was limited to merely a small colonial Empire that held one fort in Africa, a small collection of islands in the Caribbean, and a dominion not much larger than itself in North America.

However, in 1841, an informal series of meetings between Victoria and Mary IV soon lead to an unexpected level of cooperation between Scotland and the United Kingdom over the issue of colonization. The Douglas Accords (so named because they were created in the town of Douglas on the Isle of Man) undertook a similar purpose to what the Treaty of Tordesillas had tried to do for Portugal and Spain, delineating the areas that the United Kingdom and Scotland could colonize so as not to conflict with each other. These Accords effectively split up the whole of Africa and Asia into regions marked for either Scotland or the United Kingdom, but the most notable feature was the designation of the land along the Indus River to the northwest of English India as "Scottish India".

In 1843, a new Scottish fleet began to sail to establish more colonial outposts in order to be able to reach these new areas that had been apportioned to its nation. The first place it stopped was in Fort Orange, newly renamed Fort Thistle, to reinforce the newly Scottish fort against several native groups that had tried to raid it in the last few years. After this, it established Fort Walvis in the dry plains around Walvis Bay, before moving on to the eastern coast of Africa. There, a brief skirmish with the Omani resulted in the forced cession of Zanzibar and the port of Mogadishu. By 1844, the Scottish fleet had arrived off the Indus Delta, and a negotiating party went ashore to negotiate the establishment of a protectorate over the small sultanate of Makran and the local princely state of Sindh. Makran was more or less forced to agree, but Sindh refused the treaty, believing that a treaty with the United Kingdom would be preferable. They denied the treaty, though, while unaware that the United Kingdom had been pledged to ignoring the territory, and thus were caught off-guard when the nearby British military commander denied their request for a protectorate.

Scotland used this denial of their treaty as a pretext for war, and invaded in April 1845. The war was hideously one-sided, and Scottish troops managed to overrun the nation within three months. By July 1845, the Prince was forced to accept peace. General Michael Williams, the general who oversaw the conquest of Sindh and the overthrow of its ruling family, famously sent word of his victory to Edinburgh with two words in Scots Gaelic: Pheacaich Mi - "I have sinned." With the conquest of Sindh completed, Scotland now held control over the coastline surrounding the Indus Delta. Scotland was able to formally organize the Scottish East India Company through a Royal Charter from Mary IV. Many future historians would later mark this event as the start of the main phase of Scottish Imperialism.


	3. 1846 - 1856

By 1846, the "Scottish Empire" had come to cover a wide swath of territories stretching from North America to Africa to Asia. And quickly, a question came to the fore. All across the Scottish colonial holdings, slavery had slowly grown, although not to a point where it was as endemic as in the United States or the Empire of Brazil. The United Kingdom had abolished slavery in 1838, and many in the Scottish government, particularly from the Whig Party. During a debate taking place over much of the early months of 1846, the Whigs gave such a spirited campaign that the people of Scotland as a whole slowly drifted towards abolition. With few major bases of slavery outside of a handful of plantations in the Scottish Virgin Islands, the main opposition to abolition was mostly on the basis of maintaining a status quo, and that abolishing slavery would lead to unrest in the Scottish Virgin Islands. Eventually, the Scottish Parliament decided that they would hold off on a decision until after the election that would conclude later that year. In May 1846, the Whigs gained the majority in the Parliament, and a subsequent vote abolished slavery in all of Scotland's domains. Full legal equality was a long way off, however.

In 1847, the Scottish Empire began to grow yet more with a new war against the Kalat Khanate, which turned out to be surprisingly more difficult. The larger territory of Kalat was easy to invade and conquer, owing to the technological superiority of the Scottish troops, but ended up being harder to control, as an insurgency started up almost immediately after the Khan was deposed by the expeditionary force. Undaunted, the Scots would continue to attempt to impose a direct colonial rule over them for some time longer.

With several colonies at its command, and trade all the way from the Indian Subcontinent starting to pour into Scotland, the economy was taking off. New industrial growth was being spurred, with factories coming up all over the country in both the Highlands and the Lowlands, although it was much more prevalent in the Lowlands than the Highlands. It was at this time that the Liberal Revolutions began to make themselves known in Scotland, an import from continental Europe. All across Europe, increased liberal agitation had lead to several riots and small-scale revolutions all across Europe from Spain to Russia. Scotland was no different, although the effects were somewhat dampened by the fact that Scotland was already a fairly liberal country for its time, with a fully democratic government and with Queen Mary IV holding almost no power over the government that was officially formed in her name. Regardless, there were several issues, notably the extension of voting rights to many of the poorer strata of society and the growing issue of wealth disparity in the nation. While the revolutions were never as strong as they were in places like Germany and Italy, they nonetheless cemented the ideas of "First Phase Liberalism" in Scotland.

Another issue was becoming readily apparent. Across the waters in Ireland, starting in 1845, a massive famine had started decimating the population of the Irish. A potato blight that had spread across all of Europe was harshly affecting the Irish, where two-fifths of the population relied almost solely on the potato for their food and the remainder also used it quite often. Emigration from Ireland had gone way up, with the Irish departing their homeland for other nations on the British Isles as well as for North America, primarily the United States and Canada. Scotland in particular was getting a large amount of immigration from Ireland, and the already overcrowded cities that had been getting a lot of migrants from the countryside grew even more crowded with thousands of migrants from Ireland. As in England, there was a reactionary movement against these migrants, with many Scottish businesses refusing to hire the Irish or hiring them for slave wages. A nascent Irish rights movement quickly grew almost overnight, with its epicenter in Glasgow, the center of Irish immigration to Scotland. This movement quickly merged with many parts of the Liberal Revolutions, although never entirely.

In North America, the Canadian Rebellions of 1837 had lead to a somewhat greater degree of Canadian self-government, although not to the point where the Canadian government could handle its own affairs self-sufficiently. Immediately adjacent to the new "Province of Canada", the Dominion of Nova Scotia began to petition the Scottish government for greater self-governance of its own in 1849. Scotland, with its attention divided by the continuing guerilla war in Kalat and the still continuing Liberal Revolutions, didn't have the capacity to properly respond to this sort of request, and quickly threw together a plan for Nova Scotia that involved the creation of a Dominion Assembly, the predecessor to the future Parliament, and allowing the appointing of a Premier to oversee this Assembly in the same way that the Prime Minister of Scotland oversaw the Scottish Parliament. As slapdash as the plan was and as quickly as it was put together and enacted, it worked surprisingly well. With an Assembly, the Dominion was able to vote on and process several of its own domestic laws (with things like diplomacy, war, and trade still handled by Edinburgh) without the need for constant oversight from Scotland. The success would later inspire Canada to petition Britain for a similar reorganization of its government.

Back at home, the strain put on Ireland from the Potato Famine was growing to be too great to bear, and many of the Irish had started to carry out acts of violence and terrorism against the United Kingdom's government. While Scotland officially condemned this violence, a few in the Scottish government also supported the idea of Irish independence, with MP David Whitmore of Dundee quoted as saying "In order to ensure the true freedom of all people of the British Isles, then the last remnants of English control over the islands must be ended. The United Kingdom must be dissolved." This got some support in the Parliament, but Whig Prime Minister Andrew Rutherford opposed the official involvement of Scotland in the affairs of the United Kingdom when it came to Ireland. Nonetheless, many Scots began to sneak arms and supplies into Ireland, especially from the Irish migrants who had left for Scotland and had acquired some wealth. Spurred on by this, several Irish rebel groups began to organize with the goal for overthrowing English rule over the whole of Ireland.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Parliament was incredibly happy with the new economic boost acquired from its colonies and holdings overseas, and sought to expand them further. In 1853, Scotland looked out across Asia again, and saw that the Sikh Empire to the north of its colony (which had come to be simply called "Baluchistan") was in dire straits, with a financial situation that had been worsened by an embargo by the British that effectively cut them off from trade with the outside world. What's more, the Sikh Empire was entirely within the Scottish sphere of colonialism that the Douglas Accords had set in the Indian Subcontinent. However, with the smouldering conflict still ongoing in Kalat, any large-scale military action against the Sikh, who were still very well armed and had much more manpower than the Kalati or Sindhi had once had, the Scots elected instead to try and peacefully bring the Sikh Empire into their domain.

A Scottish envoy approached the Maharajah in Fall of 1853, offering generous terms for swearing fealty to the Scottish Crown. Maharajah Duleep Singh, who had come to power during a very tumultuous time owing to the influence of the British, felt relieved to be offered the status of protectorate by Scotland. However, at the insistence of Maharajah Duleep himself, he traveled back with the Scottish envoy all the way back to Edinburgh, where he personally met with Mary IV to declare his allegiance to her. Reportedly, the two monarchs became very fond of each other very quickly, and they began to exchange letters back and forth not long after they had met each other. They would continue to exchange letters back and forth for decades afterwards. Not only had the Maharajah secured his nation's independence, he had the favor of the Scottish queen and thus had more of an ability to negotiate with the government.

By 1855, the Kingdom's influence had grown beyond all of Europe, but was also growing somewhat within Europe as well. As Scotland was a neutral power that nonetheless was strategically positioned just north of the United Kingdom, several nations saw it as ideal if they foresaw a conflict with the UK. In particular, France had been eager to renew its friendship with Scotland as it had stood in the ancient days of Europe. At the time, France was prospering under the Second French Empire, with its monarch Napoleon III. Eager to curry favor, bilateral agreements with both Edinburgh and Paris were soon called and underway by early 1855. However, many of the Whig Party criticized their own party associating with the absolute monarchy of France, but even many Whig politicians had ties to France and French businesses. As such, many of the criticisms proved to be ephemeral, and the ancient "Auld Alliance" was restored in early 1856.


	4. 1856 - 1866

In 1856, things were largely quiet in Europe. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a balance of power known as the "Concert of Europe" had taken root, and every nation was eager to maintain the balance. Even the rising might of Prussia wasn't proving to be too great a threat to the established balance. However, some nations saw the renewal of the traditional Auld Alliance as a threat to that balance, particularly the United Kingdom. Many in the UK government saw the alliance as encircling them in the way they had been in times long since gone like the 1500s. Never since the marriage of Mary I and Francis II had Scotland and France been so close together. What's more, with the situation in Ireland continually deteriorating, London had every reason to feel like it was being boxed in, and that the Concert of Europe was falling apart. As such, the United Kingdom soon began to look for an ally of its own on the continent. Privately, however, the two monarchs of the "opposing" countries trusted each other greatly. Mary IV and Victoria were good friends even as their governments snorted and pawed the ground at each other, exchanging letters often and even occasionally meeting in person.

Regardless of how London felt, there wasn't a valid casus belli, and thus had no real reason to invade. Indeed, invading would turn the sympathies of Europe against the UK, being seen as a larger power unjustly invading a lesser power. With the Concert of Europe still holding together, Scotland had the ability to focus on a larger problem that had presented itself. In North America, the UK's dominion of Canada and Scotland's dominion of Nova Scotia were slowly but steadily receiving an influx of illegal immigrants in the form of escaped slaves from the United States. The so-called "Underground Railroad" had two different termini: Toronto in Canada and Halifax in Nova Scotia. While Toronto was far more common, Nova Scotia had nonetheless received about 7,000 slaves escaped from the USA. The United States, largely driven by the urging of the southern states, had issued a formal protest to both the governments of the two colonies stating that they desired the deportation of all escaped slaves back to the United States to face justice under the Fugitive Slave Act. The government of the Province of Canada quickly said no, but the government of the Dominion of Nova Scotia was wavering on the topic.

On the 18th of April 1857, the renown African-American orator Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and self-made freeman, famously appeared before the Nova Scotian parliament to give a speech against deportation. An excerpt is given here:

"Honorable Gentlemen of the Parliament, the Negro is only a darker version of the White man. He is said to have no culture, arts, or letters of his own, but I posit that this is only because he has never been afforded a chance to prove himself. The White slave owners of the south say that slavery is good for the African man, that he needs hard labor to make himself productive and fulfilled. And yet, millions of my kind, of the kind whose kin stands before you, rot away in bondage, in shackles, in the hovels of the plantations, in the shadow of the manors that their white masters live in, made off the sweat and all-too-often blood of the African man. The Scottish nation stands for liberty and freedom, fought for by men the likes of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. Should the slave, desirous of this freedom, be punished for taking liberty into his own hands and escaping to freedom? Gentlemen of the Parliament, stand with us! Stand with us in our fight for freedom!"

The speech resounded with the whole of Scotland. Douglass' speech was reprinted and published throughout the Kingdom, and the Scottish public quickly turned against deportation. The speech swayed the necessary votes against deportation, and Nova Scotia joined Canada in refusing to deport the escaped slaves. The United States was outraged, but with unrest growing rapidly in its own borders, they could do nothing about it. The speech also had an unintended effect: it became very popular in Ireland, where many saw a similarity in their own struggle against English oppression. Douglass' speech began to galvanize the Irish public more, seeking their own freedom in the same way the slaves of the United States were. In mid-1857, many of the Irish nationalist groups merged together to form the Irish Royal Army, often just abbreviated as the IRA, which quickly began to fight to create an independent Irish Kingdom.

Something broke in mid 1858. An abolitionist named John Brown had lead a raid on a Federal arsenal in Mount Vernon in Alabama, and had successfully started distributing arms and guns to slaves all across the south. What started as a spark soon grew into an uncontrollable blaze, a full-scale slave rebellion in the United States. Initially, the European nations were neutral on the subject, but with the slaves soon pushing back against the better-trained and better equipped United States Army through sheer force of manpower alone, along with the resulting collapse of the economy of the southern states, they began to take more interest. The United Kingdom, Scotland, and France in particular began to smuggle supplies and weapons into the rebel-controlled areas. By 1861, the rebellion had resulted in many, many people dead and much more land and area damaged or outright destroyed. However, with more and more experience against the United States, and fighting in a new tactic of war often called "guerrilla warfare", the slaves were doing better and better. Finally, whether by tactical strategy or just sheer luck, the final battle of the war came in 1862, when the slave forces managed to rout US General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Savannah. With this victory, London, Edinburgh, and Paris officially stepped into the war, and stated that the United States had to make peace.

Begrudgingly, and absolutely humiliated, the United States was forced to both abolish slavery and relinquish the states of Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi to the former slaves, which was quickly turned into the Republic of New Afrika. At once, this new Republic, which wasted no time in voting in Frederick Douglass as its President, formed an alliance with the three nations that had propped it up. A colossal migration took place, with Anglo-Americans leaving in droves and the newly freed slaves moving en masse to New Afrika. While the United States' economy completely collapsed, New Afrika slowly built itself up with trade from western Europe.

Back in Europe, after all this chaos, the IRA forces managed to secure a breakthrough in Dublin, which they seized and managed to crush the last major UK garrison on Ireland. London was forced to concede defeat, and the new Kingdom of Ireland became the third nation on the British Isles. The United Kingdom was thus abolished in its entirety, and the remnant of its government thus became simply the Kingdom of England for the first time since the 1700s. Ireland took a confederated approach towards its government, with the nation being split into several "Clans" that would elect the High King of Ireland (who would be referred to as simply the King of Ireland outside Ireland itself). Almost immediately, the King of Ireland, an Irish clan leader who had coronated himself King Donal I, made arrangements for meeting with Queen Mary IV, but awkwardly, he died after reigning over an independent Ireland for only around 7 months. And in another ironic twist, his daughter was coronated as Queen Saraid I, leading to the situation that all three nations of the British Isles were ruled by Queens.

Queen Saraid, Queen Mary IV, and Queen Victoria would later meet in Douglas, which had become recognized as a neutral ground between all three nations, and created an informal association between the nations. A formal treaty between England and Ireland not long after achieved a sort of peace in Ireland over the issue of the Protestants in the North who still followed the Anglican Church, that Ireland would recognize these people's right to free worship in a nation that by and large was now mostly Catholic. Scotland in particular also had a division of religion, where many in the Highlands and the Hebrides still followed the Catholic faith.

By 1864, Scotland and England and Ireland, after the settling of the "Irish Troubles", had settled down, and tensions had largely calmed with each other. The friendship between the three Queens of the countries had lead many people to call them the "Royal Coven". This was more in jest than anything else, though. Regardless of this, Scotland still held a good relationship with France. Indeed, even England had started de-escalating tensions with France, seeing any possible conflict with France as being largely ruinous now that the United Kingdom was entirely dissolved. However, even with the British Isles now in a state of peace, the Concert of Europe was starting to steadily fall apart. After the Crimean war had resulted in a Russian victory, the Ottoman Empire had been turned into all but a Russian puppet state, and Austria had gobbled up Bosnia-Herzegovina in a sort of self-compensation for the fact that Russia now effectively surrounded it on two sides. Perhaps more important was the rise of Prussia to prominence in the North German Federation, and with a unification of Germany almost imminent, the balance of power in Europe was in danger of being destroyed beyond repair.


	5. 1866 - 1876

1866 saw a treaty between England and Scotland to sell off the colony of Western Australia to Scotland for the sum of £3,000,000. The capital was established in the city of Durham, the only city of any significance that had been established in the region in the south-western portion of the continent, and was organized as the Dominion of Western Australia. This name was rather ponderous, though, and various other names were suggested, including Swan River and Westralia. No replacement name would be determined for several decades, but the colony would slowly grow regardless. With a vast landscape of mostly dry grasslands with a corner of green landscapes in the southwesternmost corner, the landscape proved good for grazing, and sheep quickly became Western Australia's largest economic activity.

Around this time, a new cultural shift in Scotland had come about. During the time of the Union from 1707 - 1814, the British had attempted to stamp down the Gaelic identity of the Highlanders and make the Scots "British". At one point, the national anthem of the United Kingdom had a verse referencing "Rebellious Scots to crush". However, with Scotland independent for some 50 years now, these efforts had come to an end some time ago. In Scotland, writers like James S. Angus, George Gilfillan, Theodore Martin, and Janet M. Rae began to produce works of literature in Scots and Scots Gaelic that became popular not just in Scotland, but in all of Europe, showing that the languages were capable of great beauty and poise, much like the Canterbury Tales had done for the English language, and that they weren't necessarily rough or brutish. Not only this, but tartan had become vogue at the time, with the kilt being popularized for men all across Europe to the point where many criticized the widespread wearing of "skirts". It soon became common for the richest men in Europe to travel to Scotland to have their own personal tartan designs created for their families. Study of Gaelic culture and pagan rituals became popular among the higher colleges of Scotland, and study of Scots Gaelic soon began to supplant even the study of Latin in Scotland. The whole cultural phenomenon soon came to be regarded as the rebirth of Scottish identity, which up until that point had largely based around the idea of "British, but not English", the start of the "Gaelic Revival" that ran parallel to the rebirth of Irish culture right next door.

By 1869, the Scottish Empire had evolved into a secondary power on the world stage, especially with the prestige of its culture and colonial development. Tensions were, of course, inevitable. A renewed revolt against Scottish rule in Kalat soon drew the attention of Edinburgh away from any nascent conflicts in Europe. The Khanate cum Colony of Kalat had never been entirely quiet, and inspired by the slave revolt that had created New Afrika had begun pushing back against Scottish presence even harder. Finally, the new Conservative government that had been elected in 1870 declared that they would stamp out Balochi resistance once and for all. In one of the most controversial decisions of Scottish Imperialism, General Walter Darling was given the order to stamp out insurrection by any means necessary. All across Balochistan, entire villages were razed. Women were often the victim of rape by the Scottish soldiers, and people were executed en masse. When Edinburgh got wind of the devastation their generals were inflicting on the Balochi, they only put up a paltry protest and did nothing but tell Darling to return to Gwadar on the coast. The Balochi people would never fully trust the Scots again.

In 1871, the Franco-Prussian war ended in an utter rout of the French forces, and lead directly to the formation of the German Empire, which in one bound became what seemed to be the strongest nation in Europe, stronger even than England. In one fell swoop, the balance of power was upended. Scotland immediately came in to try and help France recover, reaffirming the alliance that France, so confident in its chances of victory, hadn't called upon during the course of the war. Ireland also turned to help France, but England wavered. On the one hand, this strong new German nation was immensely powerful, and threatened to upset the balance of power in Europe. On the other hand, the Royal Family was German in its heritage, ever since George I of Hanover had become monarch in 1714, and Victoria herself was still of the House of Hanover. The English continued to debate the question of where to put its loyalties for some time until 1874, when a very good point was brought to the fore: Germany, for all its land strength, had a negligible navy and thus couldn't provide support in the event that France, Scotland, and Ireland all attacked it at once. As such, England decided that it would be best to simply remain neutral for the time being, and thus attempted to focus its attention outside of Europe.

Scotland's internal development had come a long way. The Highlands served as a source for raw materials in the many mines that dotted its mountainous landscape, while the Lowlands processed those materials into products that could then be used by people the world over, including the Highlands. As such, Scotland had gone from having a vicious economic divide to having a well-developed economic dependence built up between its two regions that benefited both their development. But it wasn't rosy. Factories had spoiled many landscapes with pollution, and the mines often tore open mountains with little regard for the environment. As Scotland was fairly small, its factories were much more densely packed, and their collective pollution was much more apparent. Glasgow had turned almost entirely into a factory city, and the smoke from so many factories often rendered the sky completely brown or black. The River Clyde hadn't flowed in anything other than various shades of brownish-black for a decade. It eventually got to the point where Queen Mary IV herself complained vocally about how Holyrood Palace was slowly turning black from so much coal soot. A parliamentary investigation that was backed by both the Liberals and the Conservatives carried out inspections, and determined the obvious: the copious amounts of coal burned in the factories were the cause. Immediately, regulations went into effect to force businesses to limit the amount of pollutants they poured out of their chimneys. This was notable for being one of the first known major instances of socialist-inspired legislation in Scotland, largely driven by the breakdown of the Scottish Worker's Party and the subsequent merging of many of its members into the Liberal Party, fundamentally changing its base platform to include more socialist-inspired goals, such as pollution controls, wage laws, and regulations on hours worked. The future seemed bright.


	6. 1876 - 1886

In 1876, the Scottish Empire received a sudden jolt: Maharaja Duleep Singh, the ruler of the Sikh Empire as a Scottish Protectorate, had been the subject of an assassination attempt by agents from the neighboring Emirate of Afghanistan, who sought to make inroads on his territory. Outraged, the Maharaja called to Scotland for military support, and a motion of Parliament approved it. The response was the outbreak of the Afghan War, which lasted for little more than a year. Not only did Scottish forces outclass the Afghan forces in both manpower, organization, and strategy, but the Sikh Empire's forces had been considerably modernized and reorganized along modern lines. The Afghan War was the first known instance of the Sikh Empire utilizing its military against a foreign nation to such an extent. The Sikh Empire, having sat within Scotland's sphere of influence for decades, came to be considered "westernized" by the European powers, much like Japan had not long after its "Meiji Restoration".

With this, Scotland officially opened an Embassy in the Sikh capital of Lahore, and the Sikh also opened their first embassy in Edinburgh. Scotland also saw an opportunity to relieve some of the strain on its Empire. The Kalati people had continually been in revolt even after the infamous "Rape of Kalat", and Edinburgh had decided that the lands were more trouble than they were worth. In fact, almost all of "Scottish India" was. They had claimed the land with the hopes that it would turn out to be as productive and economically powerful as the English Raj in India had become, but it had failed. As such, Scotland offered to sell off its holdings in Balochistan to the Sikh Maharaja, who happily accepted the deal. The "Scottish Raj" as it was by now sarcastically called was reduced to just Sindh, which had been a bit more amicable and easier to hold than Balochistan had been. At the same time, the Sikh Empire now had a port on the Indian Ocean, allowing it greater freedom of trade (albeit still with a preferential trading system with Scotland). The Sikh had also conquered the easternmost regions of Afghanistan, all of which contributed to making the Sikh Empire the greatest local power in the region.

By 1879, the Scottish Empire had suffered a humiliation with the inability to hold down Balochistan, but the rest of its Empire was easier to handle. However, even with Balochistan gone, there was still an excellent place to build the Empire larger still: Africa. The nations of Europe had developed sufficient technologies to properly invade and conquer large regions of the continent, and all had started scrambling to do so. Many conflicts between the various colonial powers had started almost immediately, to the point where it seemed like the Empires were about to go to war with each other. Scotland, however, offered the chance for mediation. It called out to the nations of Europe that held colonial claims across the continent to convene in a meeting that would determine who would colonize what, much like the Douglas Accords had determined between England and Scotland almost 40 years ago.

Thus, the Edinburgh Conference was convened in April of 1880. Present at the meeting were representatives of England, Scotland, Germany, France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Austria-Hungary were present, all jockeying for who got what land. Not only this, but standards for colonization were also adopted that effectively enshrined a lack of protections for the natives and the advancement of colonialism by any means necessary. Several land claims were negotiated at the table, including those for the Scottish Empire. Scotland's claims were centered around the lands that had already claimed back in its earliest days with restored independence. Scotland's new Empire now extended over the regions of the Ivory Coast, outwards from the holdings at Fort Thistle, the region of Somaliland outwards from the city of Mogadishu, and the new region of "Namibia" that expanded outwards from the holdings in Fort Walvis. The Scottish Empire also gained control over the region known as "Kenya" as far as Lake Victoria and through the region of "Buganda". The last region of land appropriated to it was a holding in Gabon, an entirely new one that had no direct access to any existing Scottish forts. With this and other nations having divided up Africa amongst themselves, Scotland now commanded a respectable Empire for itself. Upon hearing the results of the land appointed to Scotland, Mary IV was quoted as saying "It would seem we've made up for the disaster of Darien", hearkening back to the disaster of the Darien Scheme that had been one of the main factors leading to the Acts of Union that had created the Kingdom of Great Britain for a little more than a century.

Scottish colonization of Africa, though, proved to be a bit harder than merely claiming the land. With the harsh climate and natives that far outnumbered them, the idea of colonizing the lands the same way they had done with places like Westralia and Nova Scotia and the Virgin Islands was out of the question. As such, Scottish colonization would more involve economic investment and utilization rather than settlement. Scottish companies quickly began to travel to the colonies to make use of the resources, such as tropical wood, rubber, and ivory. Tobacco plantations also became common and widespread in the tropical colonies of Gabon and the Ivory Coast, while activities like herding became more common in the drier climates of Namibia ("Scottish South Africa") and Kenya. Another important development was the droves of missionaries that traveled to the new colonies to begin the conversion of the natives from local faiths to that of the Church of Scotland. These efforts met varied success across many colonies, but would utterly fail in places like Sindh and Somaliland, which clung fast to Islam.

These missionaries would have a mixed legacy. In Kenya, for example, a priest by name of David Livingstone had become a popular example of the success of Empire by his own story if nothing else: he was born in poverty just before independence, rose to a higher societal standing and became a priest, and traveled to the Scottish colonies as a missionary on many occasions, even suffering malaria but miraculously coming through it. His mission in Mombasa was often bandied about in the press for its success in converting the locals to the Church of Scotland, its humane practices of conversion and treatment of the sick, as well as the efforts it made in "making the natives Scottish". However, in another case, a missionary named Adam Cunningham had a much less well-covered effort, which took a fire-and-brimstone style to a far extreme of "by any means necessary". The efforts of Father Cunningham often included brutal beatings, starvation, and sometimes outright torture to "convince" the natives to convert. Naturally, many pro-Empire papers conveniently "forgot" to cover these atrocities.

By 1886, Africa had been completely claimed and divided up, barring only the nations of Liberia and Ethiopia (and even it had lost some land). With Africa no longer the main issue, Europe went right back to squabbling with itself. In particular was the rising French desire to reconquer the lost provinces of Alsace-Lorraine, the idea of "Revanchism". The whole of Europe was polarizing around whether you were on Germany's side or France's side. Scotland was still solidly aligned with France, but England was still wavering on who to join. Scotland's greatest fear was that England would align with Germany, and that in a future Franco-German war, that England would invade again. Some of the more jingoistic figures in Scotland began advocating preparations for such a war, stating that a "Fourth Scottish War of Independence" (the Napoleonic-era rebellion being the third) was inevitable, and that with France on their side and their Empire to bolster them, Scotland could succeed again. While the then-Conservative government balked at the idea of going to war, they nonetheless began to strengthen defences along the border with England.

Finally, Scotland's nightmare came true. In September of 1886, the will of the Iron Chancellor came through, and through diplomatic maneuverings he managed to form an alliance between England and Germany, which Bismarck saw as necessary to maintain the balance of power in Europe between Germany and France. All at once, the Scots now had a border with what was at the very least nominally a hostile nation. The historical fears of the Scottish people for an English invasion were suddenly brought across time to the modern era. Immediately, the Conservative party began to not only reinforce defences but construct new ones, a project that Prime Minister John Ramsay described as "the construction of a new Hadrian Wall." 1886 ended with peace tenuous on the British Isles, with a possible war between England and Scotland seeming imminent.


	7. 1886 - 1896

The new Anglo-German alliance was concerning a lot of people, especially on the British Isles. The Scots and English had no intention of going to war, but with both allied to the main rival powers of Europe, many expected that they would go to war anyways. By early 1887, the Scots had amassed almost 40,000 soldiers on the border with England, in preparation for a possible attack. It was around this time that it became apparent that the Royal Scots Navy was hopelessly behind when it came to a match against the English Royal Navy. Not long after Scotland began to construct a large bevy of new ships, all of which had iron hulls and the most modern guns available to them, it soon became apparent that for all of the last 7 decades, Scotland hadn't had a proper strategy in place for an English invasion. While it hadn't been needed, many in the Scottish army began kicking themselves over it, and quickly began to create new strategies for the event of an English attack.

The first and most comprehensive of these plans was named the Thistle Plan, after the national floral symbol of Scotland as well as an apt metaphorical description of it; the concept was "grab at it and get a hand full of stickers". The strategy was a radical departure from the classic European concept of charging into battle guns blazing, like it had been in the Napoleonic Wars. During the American Slave Rebellion, the Scottish adjutant to the United States had seen the strategy used by the slaves of "guerrilla warfare" as it was called, and how it had allowed a force that was inferior in manpower, logistics, and experience to win the independence of New Afrika, which to this day had still managed to remain at peace with the United States perhaps out of begrudging respect (if not for the racial divide that now kept them apart). Scottish generals began to adapt this into a defensive strategy that did not involve invading England, but rather putting all effort into the defence of their frontier. At the same time, new fortifications were erected around Glasgow and Edinburgh, and several redoubts in the Highlands. In fact, the mountainous terrain of the Highlands was chosen to be the hiding place for the Scottish government in the event that Edinburgh should fall to the English. And in the event that the whole country should fall, the government would hide in the Highlands while the whole of the country carried on a war of resistance, fighting in much the same way the now-former slaves in the USA had.

1888 saw a rather odd sort of power shuffling in Germany. Emperor Wilhelm I died, and was succeeded by his son Frederick III. And just a few months later, Frederick III died and was succeeded by his own son, Wilhelm II. Unlike his grandfather and namesake, Wilhelm II was not as deferential to the workings of Otto von Bismarck and wanted to take a stronger position of his own in foreign affairs. In 1890, Wilhelm II sacked Bismarck and effectively removed the person who had been keeping peace on the continent for almost 20 years from any real power. With Bismarck gone, Wilhelm decided on a path of strengthening Germany by any means necessary, expanding its colonial Empire outside the lands of Mauritania and Tanzania and the other scattered holdings it had. The Imperial German Navy began to be expanded, in an attempt to "catch up with England", who they were ostensibly still allied with. This brash new way of going about things worried the English government, who saw Germany more and more as a threat rather than an ally. Wilhelm II badly wanted to be liked by the English, and desperately sought the approval of Queen Victoria, his maternal grandmother. While Queen Victoria, in the closing days of her reign, treated him with tact and cordiality, the English government found him boorish and rude, often given to impulse. Finally, in 1892, the English government got its opportunity: a British diplomat who had been scheduled to meet with Wilhelm II in place of Queen Victoria herself, he reportedly threw a fit so bad that it culminated with him striking the diplomat over the head with a nearby inkwell. The problems of dealing with the German Kaiser while still being allied to them had become too much to bear, and England annulled its alliance with Germany in early 1893. All of a sudden, the Scots found that the English were no longer part of what was nominally a hostile alliance. The pressure was relieved, but the Thistle Plan was still held in place in the event that England tried something drastic.

In 1893, Queen Mary IV died, having reigned for 54 years. Her funeral was attended by monarchs from all over Europe, including Queen Saraid, Queen Victoria, the aging Maharaja Duleep Singh, Emperor Napoleon IV (his father having barely clung to power after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War), Wilhelm II, and even President Jeremiah Haralson of New Afrika. After her death, her son ascended to the throne as James VIII, the first Scottish monarch born in Scotland since Charles I, who had been born in 1600, almost 293 years ago. Mary IV's death signified the end of the "Marian Era" in Scotland, the period of Scotland's greatest glory and triumph overseas. Many people spoke of the new Jamesian Era as one of uncertainty, with peace in Europe seemingly hanging in the balance. Regardless of this, the alliance between Scotland and France, the ancient Auld Alliance, had been relaxed with the nation of Russia forming an alliance with France in 1894, surrounding Germany and its new ally Austria-Hungary in the west, east, and south, when the Ottoman Empire was included in Russia's sphere of influence.

With the pressure to answer a call from France relaxed, Scotland worked on currying favor within the British Isles. All three nations had come to see the Empire of Germany as an imminent threat, including England. England was eager to try and make friends with Ireland and Scotland even as the Scottish generals kept the Thistle Plan on reserve. By this time, the Isle of Man had become a neutral ground for the three Kingdoms, and Castle Rushen just south of Douglas, the ancient seat of power for the Isle of Man, had informally become the meeting place for representatives of all three nations. In April of 1894, the three kingdoms announced the formation of the British League, a military alliance between the three nations that while not driven by any mutual like, was more cemented in a preventing of any hostilities against each other. The meeting was the last time that Queen Victoria would leave mainland England, as her health had started declining in her old age. At the meeting, Victoria was quoted by almost every newspaper with her statement on the new monarch of Scotland. "James is a decent fellow; educated, polite, and tactful, but he is frightfully stuffy. There isn't any room for individuality with him, he is a thorough embodiment of the Crown itself. I do miss Mary. Meeting with her was like discussing matters with a sister."

In 1896, the Scottish Empire saw a native uprising against Father Cunningham's brutal tactics in Gabon. Cunningham himself was captured by the natives and brutally executed, the details of which were sketchy but were described as "involving the breaking of every single bone that can be found in the human body." In response, Scotland began a brutal campaign of suppression in Gabon that was waged with the intent to "enshrine forevermore the loyalty of the people of Scotland's colonial dominions." By 1897, the situation reached a climax when King James VIII made a somewhat controversial proclamation. Envious of how Queen Victoria had made herself "Empress of India", and how other great nations like France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia were mighty Empires, James VIII declared that the Kingdom of Scotland and her dominions overseas would be made "National Domains" of the Kingdom of Scotland, ruled in personal union with the rest of Scotland, and the whole of the lands subject to Scottish rule would officially become the supranational Scottish Empire, thus amending his title to "King and Emperor". While it did bring some new prestige to the new Empire, the controversy arose from whether or not the King could actually unilaterally amend his title and the structure of the whole Empire. A constitutional crisis emerged that hinged on the King's ability to reorganize the Empire, and was eventually settled when it was determined that only the Parliament could reorganize the nation and her dominions. It was a massive loss of face for James VIII, even though the Parliament went ahead with reorganizing the Empire to his specifications anyways. This would be the last time that the Scottish monarch would attempt to directly influence the politics of Scotland.


	8. 1896 - 1906

In the closing years of the 19th century, many people wrote proudly of all that Scotland had accomplished since independence in 1818. With a bustling colonial Empire ruled by the King-Emperor and his Parliament, the homeland had become wildly rich, even in the Highlands. The British Isles were no longer under the threat of going into a cataclysmic war, even though the rest of Europe still seemed like it. Works of literature in both English and Scots Gaelic were read across the whole of the western world, and Scottish culture had undergone a renaissance that had given the Scots a fully independent identity that resulted from a confluence of the Calvinist theology of the Church of Scotland, the rebirth of interest in Gaelic culture, and customs brought in from England, like tea drinking.

However, just before the close of the century, a new upset started in North America. The Republic of New Afrika, the almost entirely African-American nation born from the American Slave Rebellion, found itself under greater economic and political pressure from the United States, which had been glad to see the "lesser race" go initially but had developed a bad case of revanchism after the 1870s. While the issue had divided both the Democratic and Republican Parties for some time, the election of 1896 brought in President William J. Bryan of the Democratic Party. While he had no need for much of the racist rhetoric against the "Black Republic" to his south, he firmly believed that the United States needed to be whole and that the Afro-Americans who populated the country were errant American citizens who had been lead astray. As such, much of the US rhetoric involved the reconquest of New Afrika, although many either forgot or refused to acknolwedge that being independent for 30 years would make any new nation resistant to such efforts. President Haralson of New Afrika appealed to his nation's allies abroad for aid in the event of such a war, and England, Scotland, and France all gave a quiet approval of the small nation's need for intervention should it be necessary. However, all three knew that to suddenly jump in and declare war on the United States would be bad for their reputations, and they would have to wait for something to trigger the need for intervention.

That proved much easier than initially suspected. In 1897, not long after the United States declared a war to reannex New Afrika, a French ship that had been docking in Savannah was attacked by the United States Navy as part of their blockade when the ship tried to leave port. France was outraged, and used the event as a pretext to declare war on the United States in favor of New Afrika. Shortly after this, England and Scotland also declared war on the United States, and began to move their armies to the Canadian and Nova Scotian borders, while New Afrika began a defensive war of its own territory. The United States was economically powerful, but its army was poorly trained and would later be found by researchers that the US didn't have a plan for the war at all, believing that their manpower alone would suffice. Again, the war turned into a quagmire for the United States. 35 years ago, they had been fighting underfed and underequipped rebel slaves in a guerrilla war. This time, New Afrika had a proper govenrment to organize and train a proper army, and they had been preparing for a US invasion ever since independence to fight a full-on war.

Quickly, across the whole of the border, massive lines of trench warfare erupted, grinding any US advance to a halt. New Afrika, unlike the United States, wasn't trying to conquer land and was instead just holding down its own territory. Not only this, but Scottish, French, and English forces broke down the blockade in the first year of the war and began to resupply New Afrika at once. One of the highlights of the war was the Battle of New York Harbor, when English Royal Navy and Royal Scots Navy ships bombarded New York City. Very little territory exchanged hands through the war after the initial small gains by the United States, until finally in 1899, the United States Congress pushed through an impeachment of President Bryan and formally made peace with New Afrika and its European allies. In the peace negotiations, there was no change of territory, and the only peace terms put on the United States involved a final and formal recognition of New Afrikan independence, along with reparations for the war. President Haralson willingly refused the annexation of new territories in order to ensure that relations with the United States would be as amicable as possible after the war, and this would later prove true with the election of Theodore Roosevelt in 1900, who lead a campaign of peaceful cooperation with New Afrika.

In 1900, Edinburgh hosted the World Centennial Fair, in a brand new building made of iron and glass known as the "Glass Castle", a callback to the "Crystal Palace" built in London for the 1851 World Exposition. Nations from all over the world came to show off exhibits of all kinds, from innovations in agriculture such as a gasoline-powered tractor, to new developments in mechanization, the centerpiece of which was the display of a modern steamship engine that ran a massive generator to power the lights for the entire exposition. Scotland's exhibition at its own fair was a new method for taking color photographs, and it soon became a novelty to gather one's family for a color photograph that cost £30. Not long after the Exposition, Scotland held a second gathering to celebrate its Empire going into the 20th century, and invited the world's heads of state to attend. The elderly Maharaja Duleep Singh was scheduled to attend, but he passed away just days before his invitation arrived. The death of the "second most powerful monarch in Scotland" reverberated in Edinburgh, as they had been used to the Maharaja's presence in the Sikh Empire as a force in favor of Scotland. The new Maharaja proved to be just as friendly to Scotland, but the friendly face of Duleep Singh had been a welcome presence in Scotland. Regardless, the exhibition went forward, albeit not spectacularly. Rain dampened the festivities and ruined several exhibits, and the whole affair was later decided to be a failure. Even with this, Scotland remained confident in its Empire and its control over it.

In 1902, Queen Victoria died at the age of 82. She had been the longest reigning queen in not just English history, but world history as well, and the broad swath of time that she had reigned over was often fondly called the Victorian Era. After her death, Edward VII came to the throne of England. He was as distant with James VIII as his mother had been, given the Scottish King's propensity to be entirely formal in all occasions, whether they be matters of state or not. Edward VII spoke of him much the same way Queen Victoria had: "If James VIII King of Scots could channel the formality he carries at all times into his military's prowess in battle, then Scotland could conquer the world by next Tuesday." Regardless, the two managed to carry out a professional relationship for the rest of James VIII's reign. The somewhat cold and distant relationship that the two monarchs of the nations had was reflective of the relationship between Scotland and England during this time, especially when in a state visit to London in 1904 James VIII famously refused to respond to any jokes whatsoever. Scotland and England held each other at a distance, but at the very least, their relationship was even slightly friendly. The fears of being attacked by England had been allayed for now.

In 1905, the Empire of Japan, having just won a war against Russia by the skin of its teeth, approached the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland for an alliance. Both parties, the British and the Japanese, were afraid of the power of Russia, even though Scotland was allied to France and France was allied to Russia, forming a loose conglomeration known as the "Triple Entente" as opposed to the nations of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy forming the "Triple Alliance". With Europe so polarized, problems with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans and their threatening to leave Russian influence was threatening to bring true von Bismarck's prediction that the great European war would come from "some damn fool thing in the Balkans." Japan would only add another facet to that war, opening a new theater of operations in East Asia. Regardless, Russia worried the Scots and the English, and they agreed to an alliance with Japan. The stage was rapidly accelerating towards a war of proportions unseen in all of world history. The shame of it was, no one truly saw it coming.


	9. 1906 - 1916

In 1906, the new great crisis of the day began. The Ottoman Empire, long the sick man of Europe and a Russian lapdog for a while less, had come under the control of a new faction known as the "Young Turks", a nationalistic and progressive movement that sought to modernize and reform the Ottoman Empire and save it from collapse. Part of their platform was to break the Ottoman Empire out from Russian control, which it had been under ever since the end of the disastrous Anatolian War.

This did not sit well with Moscow, who began to tighten diplomatic screws on the Empire in an attempt to get it to return to obedience. France, Russia's ally, responded by approving of and even aiding them in their efforts. The result of this was the Young Turks turning to Germany for aid, and Kaiser Wilhelm II was eager to prove Germany's might against the European powers. The two nations surreptitiously signed a treaty that guaranteed that if the Ottomans were to declare independence, Germany would support it. This would be the final bit of tinder that would serve to set Europe ablaze.

For the time being, though, Scotland was existing in what was called the "Era of Good Feelings". The public at-large and the government all felt that nothing was capable of going wrong, with the Scottish Empire standing strong in the world. They had fast allies, a booming economy, and had won their intervention in the American attempt to reconquer New Afrika. It wouldn't have been a stretch to think that mankind had entered a new and free age of thinking, acting, and working. Since the start of the 1900s, new anti-pollution laws had been passed that had seen the results of clearer air and water, saving many lives and improving both the health and environment of Scotland. Progressive legislation had also seen the creation of the first "National Reserves", areas of land that had been underdeveloped for some time, and would be made to remain undeveloped in order to serve as places of relaxation and rejuvenation for the Scottish people.

The first major blow to the Era of Good Feelings was two railroad disasters at once. In 1908, a combination of bad weather and poor maintenance of a railroad bridge over the Firth of Forth lead to it collapsing during a period of high winds at a time when two passenger trains were passing over it. Both trains were sent plunging into the water, and 78 people drowned. Mere hours later, two trains that had been switched onto the same track collided on a viaduct over Loch Ness near Inverness, resulting in the boiler of one engine exploding, and _this_ resulted in the stone viaduct collapsing into the loch, killing 45 people and injuring many more. Public outrage over such catastrophes happening so close together lead to a massive inquiry into the condition of Scottish railroads nationwide by Prime Minister Thomas Shaw, which was spurred on even more when yet _another_ bridge collapsed, this time over the River Clyde near Erskine that killed 51 people, 28 of which were children. The results of the inquiry showed that the railroads of Scotland had been intentionally neglecting maintenance in order to construct what few new railroads could be constructed. The inquiry also determined that the private interests were incapable of properly managing their own railroads, and suggested that drastic action be taken before some new catastrophe completely incapacitated the railroads in Scotland. This directly lead to the passage of the Railroad Nationalization Act of 1908, which mandated the government acquisition of all assets of the three major railroad companies in Scotland and their merger into a new state-owned railroad, which was labeled Caledonian Railways. There was a lot of initial opposition, but the new railroad quickly began to standardize operations and prices. Public opposition to the plan quickly began to fade when prices for railroad travel were slashed nationwide.

In 1909, the bottom fell out of everything. In April of that year, the Russians sent an ultimatum to the Turkish government demanding that it renege on its efforts to wiggle out from under Russian control. This was exacerbated when the Russian Minister to the Ottomans was assassinated by sympathisers to the Young Turks. In response, Germany and Austria-Hungary began to mobilize in preparation for war with Russia, and the Russians and French began to mobilize as well. Scotland, fearing that war was imminent, also began to marshall its own forces in preparation. England, on the other hand, was more nervous that a Scottish mobilization might lead to a surprise attack on itself, and mobilized in tenuous preparation for a war with Scotland rather than a war on the continent. Finally, the deadline for the ultimatum came and went, and Russia thusly declared war on the Ottoman Empire. The treaty they had made with Germany kicked in, and Germany went to war with Russia, bringing Austria-Hungary with it. And following its own treaty, the French Empire declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. The "Great War" had begun.

All at once, the major powers of Europe were at war. France and Russia, confident in a quick victory, did not initially call Scotland into the conflict, giving it just a bit more time to prepare itself. Sensing that it would be drawn into the war in a short time, the Parliament passed the Wartime Preparedness Act, which gave the government the ability to institute a draft as well as the ability to requisition civilian ships for wartime use. The war in Europe quickly ground to a halt, with trench warfare as had been seen in the Invasion of New Afrika suddenly being brought to the fore in Europe. All nations, which had expected a quick and easy victory, suddenly found themselves in a massive quagmire on all fronts, especially that between France and Germany. Desperate to try and gain an advantage, the Germans began an invasion through Belgium just as France called on Scotland to join it in the war. England, who as the United Kingdom had guaranteed Belgian neutrality with the 1840 Treaty of London, was outraged at the German invasion of a neutral nation, and declared war a day before Scotland did. The British Isles were now involved in the war effort.

Initially, it made little difference. Scottish and English forces were moved to Southampton in order to embark for France, and once they arrived at the front, they were put through a meat grinder. The war soon came to be a bloody stalemate on both sides, with the Entente and the Allies both struggling to try and make any headway. Russia in particular suffered, as now that the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus were closed to it, as well as Germany blockading the Oresund, they had almost no ability to export grain nor import supplies it could not produce. Meanwhile, the Germans, even though they were advancing through towards Russia, were already starting to feel the economic pressure of a blockade. The slaughter continued without end through 1910, even as Italy finally answered the calls of Germany and joined the Central Powers, opening a new front in southern France. Regardless, the war soon reached yet another stalemate when the Austro-Hungarian forces proved to be so caught up in Russia that they provided little support for the Italians.

By 1911, the war had been dragging on for almost four times as long as anyone had expected, and members of the Scottish Parliament were calling loudly for peace. James VIII was himself somewhat unbalanced about the issue, as his mother and grandmother had been Italian, and now he was involved in a war against Italy. It was similar to how Edward VII in England felt about being at war with Germany, as his own House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was descended from the German House of Hanover, and how he was now fighting against his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II, and how Kaiser Wilhelm II was fighting against his cousin Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. The whole conflict was lampooned in the papers as being "a family dispute gone horribly wrong." Regardless, James VIII declared that he would continue the war as long as was needed. It was to this end that, in late 1911, James VIII was assassinated by a pro-German cabinet member. The intent he gave was to finally get Scotland to withdraw from the war, and surrender. The actual effect, as so often happens with assassinations, was the exact opposite. The Scottish Parliament and the new King James IX declared that they would stand resolute against German opposition, even as a detachment of the _Kriegsmarine_ had slipped through the blockade and managed to shell Aberdeen briefly before being sunk by the Royal Scots Navy.

By late 1911 and early 1912, Scotland, rapidly depleting its manpower at home, began to call on its dominions abroad even further. The whole of the Scottish Empire had been at war along with its mother country, helping to take control of German and Austro-Hungarian colonies in Africa along with attacking the Ottoman Empire, but now, they began to call even more soldiers up to the European Front, especially as Russia withered under the relentless assault. The Sikh Empire happily took up arms with its "European Sister" as it had come to be called. Many Sikh soldiers fought honourably on the fields of France and Belgium, earning them respect of many European nations and cementing it firmly its status of "civilized". No matter how much it helped, though, it did not do enough to make a breakthrough. 1913, the fourth year of the conflict, opened with the war yet continuing. Once, long ago, the people of Europe had marched confidently off to war. Now, though, war had become a dirty word. War had changed once and for all, it had become something that needed to be ended as quickly as possible and then never fought again. People all across Europe wanted it to end. But the armies of the Entente and the Allies continued trying to smash through. An abortive campaign in Thessaloniki ended in failure for the Entente. A German push through Soissons to drive on Paris was destroyed. A combined effort from Scotland and England and Ireland, newly entered the war after much debate, could not break the blockade of the Oresund. Russia's last-ditch effort to push back outside Minsk failed utterly and resulted in the German capture of the city.

In mid 1913, something began to break. On all sides, anti-war protests broke out. The citizens were tired of the endless conflict that was sacrificing their sons for no tenable gain. Berlin was seized by revolts. St. Petersburg, renamed Petrograd, suffered similar riots. France seemed poised to relive the Paris Commune. And even parts of London and Edinburgh were in anarchy. Finally, in September of 1913, a German diplomat traveled to London under flag of truce to negotiate an end to the war. Everyone's ego all over Europe had been bruised. No one was in a mood to try and beat any major concessions out of each other or even claim victory. As such, with everyone equally damaged in the cataclysmic conflict, the war ended with only a few changes. The Ottoman Empire, wracked by revolt and invasion, fell apart into civil war and began to suffer from a new Greek invasion. Russia was about to completely implode in on itself, and were forced to cede the creation of a small Kingdom of Poland as a buffer state under German control. The German-French border was left untouched, and both Belgium and Luxembourg had their independence restored, Germany was in no position to try and annex them. Italy was left unchanged, reeling from what many Italians saw as the "wrong choice" in supporting the Central Powers. Austria-Hungary claimed the annexation of Bosnia, but the breakdown of law and order in its already fragile Slavic territories made this largely moot in the immediate aftermath of the war. And Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II, after the complete mess he had made of all of Europe, was more or less forced to abdicate by the ministers in the German government, in favor of his son, who became Kaiser Wilhelm III.

As the sun set on 1916, the war had been over for three years. Almost all diplomacy was reduced to essential only, with nations retreated within themselves to lick their wounds. Scotland, farther removed from the fighting, had almost nothing to rebuild. But the loss in manpower, in irreplaceable lives and citizens, was all-encompassing in its reach. Families had lost fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons in what was now called the "Great War". One thing was now utterly certain. No one wanted a war in Europe ever again.


	10. 1916 - 1926

In 1917, Europe was in shambles. Russia was still imploding internally, with Nicholas II still struggling to keep the throne in the face of anarchist revolts all across the country that the military were nonetheless managing to somehow push back. Kaiser Wilhelm III was proving to be a moderate sort of person, who interacted with much more tact in his government and abroad, but still had to face widespread anger and unhappiness at losing the war, even when there hadn't been any "winners". The Second French Empire under Napoleon IV had collapsed, and was replaced by a new Republican government. Austria-Hungary had completely shattered, with every minority in rebellion against Kaiser Karl I of Austria, even the Hungarians. Italy was facing a new level of unhappiness against its government, with some even beginning to advocate the abolition of the monarchy. As it stood, the only nations that had any real level of stability after the war were those of the British Isles. Ireland, the nation that had put the least amount of manpower and time into the war was least affected, while England and Scotland faced some unrest but not to the degree of toppling their governments.

Scotland's government had retreated into itself to lick its wounds, to the detriment of most of its colonial Empire. The Sikh Empire, for its part, sent relief supplies to Scotland as a sign of goodwill and friendship, with the Maharaja meeting publicly with James IX in August 1917. However, many of the natives of the colonies who had fought in the war were, across almost all European colonies, feeling angry at how they had been dragged into a war that hadn't had any real conclusion nor victory. New movements began for independence across Africa and Asia, especially in English-controlled India. A new revolt among both Hindu and Muslim Indians began to smoulder throughout the north of the subcontinent, that England had a diminished ability to manage. Scotland, meanwhile, was facing renewed revolt in Gabon and Kenya. In all, every European nation that had colonies and had made use of them was facing new challenges to those Empires from the natives. This was especially acute in Scotland, as a large chunk of her manpower came from her colonies abroad.

In 1919, President Georges Clemenceau, only the second President to ever govern France, called for a summit of the nations of Europe, the first time that the Concert of Europe was being used since the Great War had brought much of that system to a violent, bloody, and abrupt end. Many nations accepted, and soon, the "Big 5" were at the table again: Russia, France, England, Germany, and Italy. Scotland was present as well, along with various other middle and lesser powers such as Portugal, Belgium, Serbia, and representatives of the new Slavic nations in the Balkans such as Bulgaria and Albania that had broken out of the shattered remains of the Ottoman Empire. The European Summit of 1919 was called by many the "real" peace conference for the Great war, when the nations of Europe met together to hammer out a new peace in Europe. The debates and negotiations lasted for several weeks and threatened to extend past two months, but in the end, a new peace was reached. In particular, England and Scotland finally reached a lasting peace that determined once and for all that they would not go to war with each other, would dismantle fortifications along their common border, and would push more effort into the British League with Ireland. Germany and France also agreed to a demilitarized zone along their border, although Germany kept Alsace-Lorraine. The Austro-Hungarian Empire bad broken into many smaller nations, and the remnant of the Habsburg domain (the "Austrian" portion of the former Austria-Hungary) agreed to annexation into the German Empire as part of a restored Archduchy of Austria, fulfilling the concept of "Großdeutschland" that had been a desire of many Austrians prior to the Franco-Prussian War. Russia agreed to the recognition of the Kingdom of Poland, but also to the existence of new nations, such as the three Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, along with the nation of Belarus and that of Ukraine. The Ottomans, though, were not present, and did not have any representation in the delegation that recognized the independence of the new Balkan nations.

By 1920, Europe was finally starting to recover, faster in nations that had not seen any fighting than in others. Scotland, Ireland, and England, in particular, were doing rather well. While they still owed much money to the United States, which had been a debtor but not a fighter in the Great War, the boom of industrial production that had come with the war had spurred new economic growth in peacetime. As the war ended, new social issues came to the fore; most notably, the issue of women's suffrage. The government in 1920 was under the Liberal Party headed by Prime Minister Robert Munro, as well as still being under the reign of King James IX, who was more partial to the issue than he was opposed to it. In April of 1920, instead of creating any new law to enact the measure, the Munro Government created a public plebiscite that, although only open to men and unmarried women, passed with a margin of 10%, enacting women's suffrage in Scotland. This was just part of the wider cultural revolution that was taking place amidst the "Rising Twenties". Men and women alike were dressing in less formal, and looser clothes, women were wearing their hair in the new "bob" cut, giving many the nickname "bobbers", people went traveling more on the nationalized railways to go farther on holiday, but perhaps most importantly, the new innovation of the mass-produced automobile had made its way to Europe, allowing people greater personal freedom to go where they wanted on their own terms. It was a time of great promise and potential, of newfound freedom and ability.

In 1923, King James IX suddenly and abruptly died of a severe heart attack, which many had been a result of a heart defect that had been present in Queen Mary III and Queen Mary IV, raising the possibility that it was genetic. Regardless, James IX had produced two children by this time, both daughters. As such, the eldest daughter, Anne, ascended to the throne as Queen Anne II, the third Queen of Scots in the last century. Many people had confidence at the start of her reign, ready to keep building their nation up and up and up. For the first time since the start of the Great War, people had hope for the future again.


	11. 1926 - 1936

In 1926, the world was well on the way to recovering from the Great War, if not having already recovered. The German Empire and the new French Third Republic had created cordial, if not friendly, relations with each other. The Balkans had finally gone quiet, with borders settled in jagged scars across the map that all sides were either accepting of or were cowed into accepting. Despite the fall of the monarchy in France in the fires of the Great War, many of the greatest monarchies still stood: the Russian Empire, the German Empire, and the Kingdom of England, which had become the three main powers on the continent. Berlin, Petrograd, London, Paris, Edinburgh, and Vienna had become centers of commerce and the growing countercultural movement that continued to seek throwing off the stuffiness of the Victorian and Marian eras. A major new import from across the pond was the new musical style of Jazz, which had grown out of New Afrika from blues music, which had in turn come from the old slave songs sung on the plantations that were smashed in the American Slave Rebellion. All over Europe, jazz artists were invited to give performances. It was especially popular among the Scots-African population of metropolitan Scotland, centered in the town of Dumbarton. It wasn't long before Scottish musicians managed to merge it with various Gaelic music traditions, including the use of bagpipes, to create "Gaelic Jazz", which soon found a sizeable market in Scotland and a fair niche abroad. The rise of record players made music more accessible as well, with record sales reaching millions of dollars across the whole of the Kingdom.

In 1927, though, the bottom began to fall out of things, starting in Asia. The Empire of Japan, seemingly out of nowhere, launched a surprise invasion of European holdings in the Orient. French Indochina, the Dutch East Indies, German and British New Guinea,the British port of Hong Kong and the adjacent Macau, and the various holdings in the South Pacific were all attacked in one single coordinated attack, one that even the nations being assaulted had to admire for its sheer military capacity. It was agreed at once that the nations of Europe needed to intervene, but that would prove much harder than initially suspected. For one thing, the colonial guards in the Orient had been thinned out since the end of the last war, and they had all fallen rapidly to Japan, which was able to bring its full brunt to bear on the colonies. For another thing, Japan had a very powerful ally on its side: the Empire of China. After a _lot_ of pain and chaos, many rebellions and revolutions, the Empire had finally managed to be considered "civilized", even if in a tenuous manner. Japan, seeing an opportunity, had formed an alliance with it not long after conquering Korea, the "East Asian Prosperity League". Its core value was the opposition of western influence and conquering in East Asia. With Japanese industrial output and military training, and the sheer manpower of China, they were a formidable force to be reckoned with. Long before European forces even passed the Suez Canal, the colonial garrisons in Indochina, the Dutch East Indies, and various other holdings had fallen to the Asian forces. Thailand, seeing the chances of both revenge on Europe for Imperialism as well as the chances that they themselves would be invaded, signed a pact with Japan and joined the war as well. Within weeks, by the time European forces were stopped over in western India, the Imperial Japanese Navy was shelling the ports in eastern India.

By that time, the "Great Asian War" as it was called to contrast to the "Great European War" had evolved into a slaughter the likes of the European conflict. The difference, however, was that it was a distant war, as opposed to how Japan and China could put forces practically in their own backyard to attack the European positions. Before they could properly group for an attack, the simmering unrest in India finally broke out into an all-out rebellion, resulting in the loss of India as an effective base. To make matters even worse, the Sikh Maharaja was assassinated by Japanese agents, and replaced by a new Maharaja that was partial to Japan, at once taking out the seat of Scottish power and influence in the area. Where Chinese land forces managed to keep European forces at a standstill in Indochina, the Imperial Japanese Navy routinely dominated the European powers, which came to a head in the Battle of the Four Navies, when the Japanese "Center Force" attacked ships from England, Scotland, and Germany all at once in the Straits of Malacca. The Japanese lost several ships, but the European ships were hurt even worse. It was particularly acute for England, as they had made themselves known with the strength of the English Royal Navy, which had been nigh undefeatable since the Napoleonic Wars. Eventually, the stagnating conflict lead to even more widespread unrest across the whole of Europe, as by 1928, the war seemed like it would turn into yet another pointless conflict, albeit pointless for the Europeans. Fearful of another outbreak of chaos back home, the rising unrest across Africa, and the continuing Japanese victories on land and at sea, the European forces were forced to capitulate. Just three days later, things got worse when on the 17th of July, the American stock market collapsed due to a perfect storm of economic problems that all combined into the obliteration of the Wall Street Stock Market, which quickly began to ripple out across Europe.

The Treaty of Mumbai, signed between the European Coalition and the East Asian Prosperity League in July 1928, forced the European powers to surrender all of their possessions in the Orient to the growing Japanese Empire, and forced England to recognize the independence of India while forcing Scotland to surrender its last holding in the region, Sindh, to the Sikh Empire. As Japan solidified its new sphere of influence that had gobbled up much of East Asia, and even threatened to launch a new assault into Siberia, the European powers withdrew into themselves as the collapse of the American economy finally spilled over into Europe. The spirit of cooperation and good feelings was gone, and Europe fell into an icy chill. The world was now split into three spheres of influence: Europe, the United States, and Japan. This period of time would later go on to be called the "Cold War", a very uncomfortable period of time when the three powers vied for influence and power in the world, while never truly coming to blows.

Back at home, Scotland was convulsing. Not only had they lost their closest foreign friend, and yet another war not 15 years after the last war had devastated it, but the economic ruin their nation had fallen into was causing even more chaos at home. The Liberal government had blamed the obstruction of the Conservative party for allowing the chaos to grow that bad. The new Conservative government elected in 1930 blamed the Liberals for economic mismanagement. And one thing was for certain: the Empire was crumbling. Massive waves of rebellion and risings had broken out all across the colonies in Africa, taking inspiration from the rebellion touched off by New Afrika all the way back in the 1860s. While they didn't have any real organization the way the slaves in the USA had, and certainly none of them were actual "slaves" the way the Afro-Americans had, they quickly adopted the red, green, black colors of New Afrika, their inspiration, and many began to speak of an "Old Afrika" movement. In 1931, right on the heels of the defeat of the European powers at the hands of Japan and China, the European powers were also forced to give up on their colonies. Of course, given how large and diverse Africa was, the unorganized nature of the rebellions, and how fast Europe decided to leave, the whole continent quickly went into chaos immediately after. The Europeans had simply left the rebels with the borders of the colonies as they had been, completely drawn without regard for any cultural or many times even geographic boundaries. As soon as Europe left, the whole continent descended into war once again, this time African against African.

The sun rose over a nadir for Scotland in 1936. The Empire was dead. The only Dominions they held abroad were those in Nova Scotia and the Virgin Islands, exactly where they had started over a century ago. The economy was completely in shambles, and no one knew how to fix it. And Europe was isolated again. In the chaos of losing their Empires, the "Great Depression" as it had come to be called had grown even worse for Europe than it had in the United States. Many Scots were already referring to the era as the "Lost Decade", the lowest point of the nation, and one that it would never recover from entirely. Empire was dead. Europe no longer wanted to fight anything ever again. Japan had turned East Asia into its personal clubhouse.

These were dark times indeed.


End file.
